August 11, 2017

Re-introducing our statewide environment wrap-up

With summertime in the rearview mirror, we’re shifting gears at NM Political Report. Every Thursday, I’ll be sending out a review of environmental news around the state to a new email list.

Subscribe below to receive the full email each Thursday! It’s just one email a week, with a New Mexico photo-of-the-week and information about upcoming public meetings and comment periods.

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Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that 13 federal agencies released a draft report showing that Americans are already feeling the effects of climate change. And yes, the western United States is warming the fastest. You can read the entire draft, which has already been approved by the National Academies of Sciences, here. (Of course, if you’re a regular reader of NM Political Report, you’re already in the know when it comes to what scientists are saying about climate change and its impacts on New Mexico.)

Speaking of climate change, the Houston Chronicle reports that BP has found a “fertile new source of shale gas” in New Mexico’s San Juan Basin. The company bought 33,000 acres in the area from Devon Energy. One well on those lands reached the region’s highest production rate in more than a decade, pumping 12.9 million cubic feet of gas a day in an initial 30-day period, according to the story.

For an already-arid state like New Mexico, water planning is only going to become more important. This week, an eastern New Mexico task force released its 40-year plan for water management, which is based on a report of the High Plains Aquifer that analyzed thousands of water-level measurements over 50 years. That plan calls for reducing the City of Clovis’s groundwater use by 37 percent, aggressively pursuing water conservation measures, recapturing surface water for Ogallala Aquifer recharge and moving forward on a planned pipeline from Ute Reservoir to Portales and Clovis.

The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that the city of Las Cruces and Doña Ana County are suing the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Guard Bureau over pollution from the National Guard Armory that contaminated local groundwater.

And if you just want to escape from all the news and hide out underground, the Carlsbad Current-Argus reports that National Park Service will be modernizing the primary elevators at Carlsbad Caverns. The $4 million contract was recently awarded to California-based Tutor-Perini Corporation. (Please note that I updated this after the National Park Service sent along an email explaining that the new project is to modernize the primary elevators and that the secondary elevators have already been providing service to visitors.)

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The EPA has repealed a portion of the Clean Water Act that expanded protections for smaller water systems across the U.S. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Department of the Army Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works R.D. James announced the repeal at an event at the National Association of Manufacturers headquarters in Washington D.C. Monday.
The Obama-era 2015 rule defines “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) to include isolated waterways and wetlands, as well as seasonal streams and rivers that flow only part of the year. The definition was broadly supported by environmental groups as a recognition of the complexity of water systems across the U.S. but drew criticism from industry and land stakeholders for creating uncertainty around which waters are federally regulated and which are not.
Communities in New Mexico and across the western half of the U.S. rely on waterways that flow intermittently after rain or snow to support wildlife habitats and drinking water sources.

A Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful released a gun plan Friday that includes support for an assault weapons ban and universal and expanded background checks. New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said she also supports enacting red flag laws and raising the minimum age to purchase a rifle to 21.
“This epidemic has claimed the lives of too many innocent Americans--far too many of them children--and it is well beyond time for Congress to act to protect Americans from the scourge of gun violence,” Toulouse Oliver said in her gun safety plan.

All week, we look for stories that help New Mexicans better understand what’s happening with water, climate, energy, landscapes and communities around the region. Thursday morning, that news goes out via email.

The big news in New Mexico this week involved the state’s proposed science standards. At a hearing on Monday not one of the hundreds of people who showed up spoke in support of the state’s plans to implement statewide science standards with inadequate information climate change and evolution.

Laura Paskus has been writing about New Mexico’s natural resources and communities since 2002, as an assistant editor of High Country News, a radio producer at KUNM-FM, managing editor of Tribal College Journal and a freelancer for a variety of publications including the Santa Fe Reporter, New Mexico In Depth and Indian Country Today. Her work has also appeared in Al Jazeera America, Ms. Magazine, National Geographic Online, The Nature Conservancy Magazine, The Progressive, Columbia Journalism Review, The Mountain Gazette, Audubon and Orion. She's a correspondent for New Mexico In Focus and a graduate student in the University of New Mexico’s Geography and Environmental Studies Department.